Best There’s Ever Been

At every karaoke night I’ve ever attended, someone inevitably sings “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” As many times as I’ve heard that song, I’d still put even money on Eileen Ivers beating that Johnny punk fair and square. Decide for yourself tonight at 7:30 p.m. at Boettcher Concert Hall…

Insanity Claus

By now, most of us have just about had it with “White Christmas” and “Jingle Bells.” Fortunately, Dan Hicks offers a respite from the same old seasonal fare with tonight’s Holidaze in Hicksville, a sonic celebration featuring a sleigh full of songs that were never warbled by Mel Torme. Hicks’s…

Monkeys Around

You didn’t catch bird flu this year. You watched the Dems dominate the polls. And you saw that one Real World girl kiss that other Real World girl — in Denver! Those are reasons enough for many of you to put your copy of Now That’s What I Call Christmas…

Ten Days ‘Til Christmas

Every Christmas, my brother buys me something, um, unusual. That’s why I have so many hand-carved Indian faces, hemp necklaces and — my favorite — a painting of a buffalo on the moon. It’s all made by artists local to the place where he’s residing at the time. If you’re…

Holy Tamale

“Tamales are kind of a traditional holiday fare in the community,” says El Centro Su Teatro’s John Kuebler, “like the equivalent of ham or turkey.” So it only makes sense that Su Teatro decided to combine its inaugural Tamale Festival with this year’s holiday play, The Miracle at Tepeyac, which…

Fairy Godmothers

Once upon a time, a friend lost everything in a fire. After that, he always said that fairy godmothers are hardest to find when you need them the most, which is why American Red Cross benefit events like Delectables for Disaster are so important. Tonight starting at 5 p.m., swoop…

Guy Buys

Jennifer Ito, executive director of Foothills Art Center, doesn’t believe that males are as clueless when it comes to shopping as legend suggests. “That stereotype doesn’t really exist anymore,” she says. Still, she’s sure there are plenty of fellas who would enjoy a little gift-giving advice and assistance as the…

The Architect

The actress Viola Davis has carved, handsome features and a tenacious stare that brooks no inattention. Though Davis’s implacable integrity has, for the most part, saved her from the hooker-in-the-hood roles that confine so many black actresses, she has yet to climb out of the prison of dignified maids and…

The Pursuit of Happyness

About Will Smith’s estimable talents, there is no doubt. Six Degrees of Separation, Ali…um…the “Parents Just Don’t Understand” video: The man’s got skills to pay the bills, yours and mine and his. That he seldom uses them, or their attendant clout, is dispiriting. This is an actor coming off a…

Le Petit Lieutenant

Light on visceral thrills and heavy on the quotidian rhythms of life on the force, Xavier Beauvois’s police procedural owes more to Prime Suspect and Hill Street Blues than it does to any film genre. And Le Petit Lieutenant is all the better for it, if you can withstand the…

Winter in Graupel Bay

When you enter Buntport Theater, you find yourself facing what looks like the front of a long, low, open dollhouse with rooms on two floors. These spaces are inhabited by various eccentric characters. Theres Polly, the little girl who serves as narrator; a pair of gossiping old crones; the hapless…

Sweet Charity

The big draw for this Denver Center production of Sweet Charity is Molly Ringwald in the title role. Almost everyone remembers Ringwald from the films with which director John Hughes defined American teendom: Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Pretty in Pink. A talented actress and physically beautiful — although not…

Now Playing

The Big Bang. Sometimes it’s nice not to have to think too much, to just sit back and watch a couple of frenetically energetic guys work really hard to earn your good will — and your entertainment dollars. Oh, and to make you laugh. The Big Bang posits the following:…

Susan Goldstein: Coming Home and Judy Anderson: Going Home

Simon Zalkind, director of the Singer Gallery at the Mizel Center for Arts and Culture, is best known for group shows based on some kind of theme, which are often plugged into other events, such as lectures, plays or films, that share the same topic. But lately he’s come across…

DoubleButter Boontje

The smart-looking P Design Gallery (2590 Walnut Street, 720-259-2516) is dedicated to presenting design in an exhibition format with a decidedly fine-art flavor. The current exhibit is DoubleButter Boontje, a duet of shows featuring a trio of artists. The DoubleButter part of the title refers to the collaborative effort of…

Sketches

Breaking the Mold. In 2003, Connecticut collector Virginia Vogel Mattern donated some 300 pieces of contemporary American Indian art to the Denver Art Museum. For one of the special shows inaugurating the new Frederic C. Hamilton Building, Native Arts curator Nancy Blomberg has selected over a hundred works for the…

Farce of a Champion

Talladega Nights (Columbia) This cut of Will Ferrell’s NASCAR comedy runs 13 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and that doesn’t take into account the deleted and extended scenes, outtakes, phony commercials, public-service announcements, and gag reel. A movie that already seemed to be constructed from deleted scenes is well…

Wii Love It

Nintendo has achieved the impossible: My 50-year-old, non-gaming father wants a Wii for Christmas. Either I’ve been whisked to Bizarro World, or The House That Mario Built is on to something big. With the release of its oddly monikered next-gen system, Nintendo may just have revolutionized the way America will…

Our top DVD picks for the week of December 12

AFI: I Heard a Voice (Interscope) Air Buddies (Disney) Ali Rap (ESPN) The Andy Griffith Show: The Complete Series (Paramount) Barnyard (Paramount) The Chronicles of Narnia: Four-Disc Extended Edition (Disney) A Dead Calling (Lions Gate) The Doors (Lions Gate) James Bond: Ultimate Edition Volumes 3 and 4 (MGM) John Wayne…

On the Prowl

On Saturday, The Cat’s Pajamas took her mom out for a day of camera shopping. That is, we embarked on the Holiday Boutique Crawl — hosted by eighteen northwest Denver shops — armed only with a camera (not credit cards) in search of the best that our city has to…

What to Wear Fridays: Sarah Bahl

Sarah Bahl had her Cherry Creek coming out last weekend, debuting her new line at Anastasia Collection, the just-opened boutique at 201 Milwaukee. Her line reflects much of what is happening in Denver fashion right now: whimsical recycled and reconstructed styles. Sarah hates using new fabrics, in particular, and she…

Bloody Sunday

For the typical nine-to-five work-week slave, Sunday nights are for staying at home and dreading Mondays. And while the adventurous twenty-something will still occasionally pull a bar-closing bender and struggle through day one like the walking dead, most indentured employees send a very clear message by staying on the couch:…